IIT Madras: a rich history of students landing meaningful internships
“I worked hard, partied harder and came back with assurance of much-coveted recommendation from Dr. Weinberg, whenever I needed it in future.”
– reads the internship experience of a student from IIT Madras. IIT M students like him have been bagging coveted internships and earning great feedback over the years. Read further to know what makes them get it right almost every single time.
About the college:- 4500 students, 15 departments and nearly a 100 labs. Doing justice to the whopping numbers and a legacy of half a century, IIT Madras stands tall among the engineering institutions in the country. Coming to existence in 1959 as one among the first set of IITs to be set up, IIT M has excelled both as the provider and beneficiary of internships.
About the internship:- If one is to define the internship policy in one word – Structured. It looks like practical experience matters to those who run the business at IIT M. The official policy mandates every undergrad to do an internship after the third year which counts towards 2 credits. Given IITs were set up to provide enhance technical prowess of the country, the credited internship has to be an industry internship done in India. However, many students are able to experience a variety of internships (foreign/non core etc.) as students tend to intern pretty much every year and not just in 3rd year.
Another interesting feature which sets IIT Madras apart is the IIT M research park which facilitates a set of internships right in the institute. IITMRP is a company promoted by IIT M and its alumni for creating a collaborative environment between industry and academia. It hosts a bunch of companies which offer world class infrastructure for R&D activities. This has helped in bridging the gap between good internships offered and the number of students wanting to intern. Also, IIT M facilitates a number of foreign internship through collaboration with programs such as DAAD and other foreign universities.
Informed choices on students’ part:- Dr. Arun Pachaikkannu, internship coordinator of Electrical Engineering department, says that students are proactive and the faculty need to extend only little help in finding meaningful internships. For example, Dr.Pachaikannu couldn’t think of an instance where a student of the department failed to bag in internship in the last 5 years.
And it is not just engineering either. A whole lot of students look forward to experimenting with Marketing and Finance firms while some others are enthusiastic about trying out offbeat opportunities like volunteering with NGOs. The choice of organizations too is as diverse as the streams. Some prefer internship in well established companies which offer security, structured internship program, and assured recognition at the time of placement while equal number experiment with start-ups at some point of their studies.
Spoiled for choice, students apply different criterion while deciding where they want to work. According to Manoj Kumar Velamala
Students mainly look for shop-floor experience in Core areas, a chance to get acquainted with new software and technology and the opportunity to be able to see the working of the equipment in the company.
Prashant Pinnamaneni, former Academic Affairs Secretary says that
The first and foremost criterion in assessing an internship would be the statement of purpose. The clearer it is defined, the more we get out of it since internships are of a very short period and it is important for the firm and the interne to know what he/she is going to do from day one onwards.
A few students mentioned practical considerations also such as remuneration, location and work culture.
The most sought after internships:
The unanimous favorites were Deutsche bank, Schlumberger and DAAD.
Schlum pays you a lot of money and takes very good care of you, but in return expects you to be prepared for rough, physically exhausting work. – Sanjay Guruprasad
The atmosphere in Germany is very open to you choosing what exactly you want to work on. Once you have a topic fixed, you can choose to work on any aspect of it that interests you. One other thing you are bound to notice is the attitude towards research. Most researchers are never afraid to ask one another for help especially if he has problems in an area that isn’t their area of specialization. – Anirudh Natarajan
Firms like PWC, Deloitte and some PSUs also made it to the list.
What you can learn: Knowing what is out there well is the first step of achieving it. Almost all the students we spoke to were well aware of various internship opportunities out there and institute policies surrounding internships and this homework helped them to bag much sought after ones.
Thanks Prashant Pinnamaneni, Dr.Arun Pachaikannu, Manoj Kumar Velamala, Mahak Singhal, Anirudh Natarajan(T5E), and Sanjay Gururprasad (T5E) for their valuable inputs.
Image Credit: www.iitm.ac.in
